"Phineas Thomas, born 1739 in Wales, married Elizabeth Smith, born 1743, also in Wales.After immigrating to America, they lived a little while in Pennsylvania, then moved to Kentucky.After their children were grown, Phineas and Elizabeth returned to Pennsylvania where they later died.Son, Ephraim, raised a large family in Kentucky, but also later returned to Pennsylvania. . . ."

"Paternally the Thomas family is of Welsh origin. The subject's grandfather, Phineas Thomas, was born in Wales and there married Elizabeth Smith, who, with several children, accompanied him to America early in the Colonial period. Phineas Thomas at first located in Pennsylvania, but later, hearing glowing accounts of the rich soil of Kentucky country, migrated thither with several other pioneer families and laid claim to a tract of land upon which he erected a small cabin and made a few improvements. At that time the "dark and bloody ground" was the common battlefield of numerous hostile tribes, all of which in an early day combined for the purpose of driving the hated white settlers from the land. It was during one of the most terrible periods that the Thomas family settled on the disputed territory. Fearing that massacre would eventually overtake them, as it had so many of the pioneers of Kentucky, Mr. Thomas, during a lull in the war, loaded his family and a few belongings on a wagon and returned without serious hindrance to Pennsylvania where he and wife died a great many years ago. They reared a family consisting of the following children: Ephraim, Phineas, Deborah, who married John Smith, John and James, all of whom are long since dead."